We always have a batch of homemade playdough on standby in our house. I find it’s great in the afternoon, as a way to get my very active 4yo to have quiet & calming play (generally while I cook dinner).
Because we play with playdough often we have to find different ways to make it interesting. I often make a ‘theme’ batch and add a few toys or different materials to mix things up.
With Valentines Day just around the corner this is the batch I put together – it includes homemade red sparkling dough, heart shape cookie cutters and some shiny beads (bling). Miss M had a ball making hearts encrusted with bling and was even practicing making the letters of her name using the beads in the dough.
This is my fail safe Playdough recipe –
1 cup Salt
2 cups Flour
4 teaspoons Cream of Tartar
2 tablespoons Oil
2 Cups Water
A few drops of the food colouring of your choice.
*in this particular batch we added roughly 2 heaped tablespoons of glitter for that extra ‘sparkle’.
I add everything into a medium saucepan and continually mix over a medium to hot heat (it won’t take long so don’t walk away!). It will thicken and start to look like a thick mash potato mixture, remove it from the heat and dump it onto some baking paper to cool. NOTE- there is something very therapeutic when kneading lovely warm playdough ;)..
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Love this idea!
fantastic idea! In the ingredients there is no mention of glitter, and by the looks of the saucepan it looks like glitter glue. What did you use?? and in what quantity?
Hi there, we added roughly two heaped tablespoons of ‘dry’ silver glitter to the mix :).
Thank you – I’ve amended the blog to include that extra detail too :).
Louise x
Can you bake the ornaments to dry them or let them air dry?
Hi Tina, It wouldn’t keep well BUT this recipe would and you can add the food colouring and glitter to it in the same way :). Great idea!!
Louise x
http://pagingfunmums.com/2013/07/07/homemade-modeling-clay/
If you use 1 0.13 oz package of Kool-Aid mix, instead of food coloring, you get both bright color and great smells!
We like to use superfine glitter in a high contrast color as compared to the food coloring chosen. We have also used clear vanilla flavoring (cake decorating section, Wilton brand) for a nice smell in a custom color.